Making Health Care Work

Delivering on the Promise of Quality, Affordable Health Care

Now the fight for health care reform is in Austin, and so are the health care industry’s lobbyists.

At stake is how we set up a new insurance marketplace in Texas — the single biggest tool we have to clean up health care. The new state insurance exchange will allow small businesses, those of us who buy health care on our own, and the uninsured to shop for cheaper health care plans and find some relief from increasingly brutal premiums.

Done right, the exchange will save billions and level the balance of power between consumers and the health care industry — driving the industry to cut waste and prioritize high-quality care.

The health care industry has spent millions to influence decisions on health care, so they know how high the stakes are.

In order to help us fight back against the kind of price jumps and trap-door coverage we’ve all been suffering from, TexPIRG is pushing to see that the exchange:

Negotiates for better plans. By demanding better care for less cost, the exchange can use the collective power of hundreds of thousands of Texans to finally demand that the industry do better.

Have high standards, so that bad plans aren’t an option.

Be open to as many Texans as possible. Limits that shut some individuals and businesses out of the exchange would reduce its ability to lower costs — and will be a key tactic that industry lobbyists use to weaken it.

Be accountable to the public.

Issue updates

Lawmakers and advocates from diverse organizations today urged the Legislature to increase access to affordable health insurance now, pointing to new polling data showing strong support among Texans for immediate action.

Without action from Congress, premiums and deductibles for residents of Texas with employer provided insurance will nearly double by 2016, according to a new report released today by the Texas Public Interest Research Group.

A study released today by the Commonwealth Fund found that 42% of Americans either are uninsured or underinsured. According to the study, “More than half of the underinsured (53%) and two-thirds of the uninsured (68%) went without needed care—including not seeing a doctor when sick, not filling prescriptions, and not following up on recommended tests or treatment.”

Margret Torres, who is an ACORN member and former paralegal with a college degree in communications, is not is someone who you would typically think would be without health insurance, but she is just one of more than five million Texans with no health insurance.